Johnny Cash Pardoned
On May 10, 1965 Johnny Cash performed a concert in Starkville, MS in the Mississippi State Animal Husbandry building, because it was, at the time, the only structure large enough to hold such an event. After his performance and a couple of after-parties (one at the πΚΑ house, another at a residence) he was spotted by police officers “crawling down HWY 82 picking weeds”. He was arrested and spent the night in jail for “trespassing”. Cash wrote the song Starkville City Jail after the incident and seemed to carry a grudge even 30 years later (hard to blame him, I’d say).
Johnny Cash was known as an outlaw type, and his Folsom Prison and San Quentin concerts and live recordings made him extremely popular amongst the criminally inclined population. Despite his reputation as a ‘bad boy’ and his tremendous appeal towards those finding themselves on the wrong side of the law, Cash was only arrested twice in his lifetime – the more famous of which was a drug arrest in the El Paso airport.
Starkville held the first annual Flower Pickin’ Festival this weekend and amongst the festivities, the city posthumously offered an official pardon to Cash in a ceremony on Saturday night. Though this was all ceremonial in nature (Cash died in 2003), I’m glad to see the city of Starkville make this move. I really appreciate that they are taking the initiative to celebrate and honor the Man in Black.
Check out this “Starkville City Jail” tribute on YouTube – including a brief explanation of the incident in Cash’s own words…